Linde Werdelin Teams Up With Danish Military To Develop Oktopus Frogman

Linda Werdelin is adding a new member to their Oktopus family of dive watches, and unless you’re a member of an elite wing of the Danish Military, the Frogman Corps, you won’t be getting the opportunity to own one. Dubbed the Oktopus Frogman, the latest watch out of the UK-based brand was built at the behest of the Conventus Ranae, the Frogman’s formal association for members both current and retired. The Oktopus Frogman was designed with the unique requirements of a professional dive unit in mind, and the result is a more focused, simplified dial, and a hardened, single-piece-case construction. The only catch? Each piece will be personalized with the operative’s service number, and if you don’t have one of those, you’ll have to wait for a commercially available version of the latest Oktopus.

Linda Werdelin is adding a new member to their Oktopus family of dive watches, and unless you’re a member of an elite wing of the Danish Military, the Frogman Corps, you won’t be getting the opportunity to own one. Dubbed the Oktopus Frogman, the latest watch out of the UK-based brand was built at the behest of the Conventus Ranae, the Frogman’s formal association for members both current and retired. The Oktopus Frogman was designed with the unique requirements of a professional dive unit in mind, and the result is a more focused, simplified dial, and a hardened, single-piece-case construction. The only catch? Each piece will be personalized with the operative’s service number, and if you don’t have one of those, you’ll have to wait for a commercially available version of the latest Oktopus.

The Frogman is differentiated from other Oktopus watches in a few key areas in an effort to prioritize strength and legibility. While the new case doesn’t add to the 300 meters of water resistance you’ll find elsewhere in the Oktopus line, it ditches the five-piece construction in favor of a single piece constructed from titanium. Gone are the cavernous recesses and negative spaces that have come to symbolize LW cases – with the Frogman, the case is all angles and geometric surface areas.

The dial design required another shift from the status quo of the Oktopus family. All extraneous complications have been removed, leaving hefty hour, minute, and seconds hands to dominate the view and provide maximum visibility in low light situations. Massive 12, 3, 6, and 9 Arabic numerals dominate the hour track, each comprised of Luminova sandwiched between dial plates. The intent here is to allow more light to reach the Luminova from all angles. A date aperture joins the show at 4 o’clock.

The dial construction has design details worthy of note, with recesses marking each hour along the radius. The satin finishing runs from the case to the dial and hands, creating a monochromatic scheme that you’d expect given its target audience. Inside the Frogman beats a stock, automatic movement providing 42 hours of reserve. The case back is closed, and is also titanium, with a laser engraved Frømandskorpset badge, including year joined and personnel number. It’s reminiscent of what Bremont has done with their Martin Baker watch (which you can read about here), though it remains to be seen if Linde Werdelin will offer a limited number of commercially available variants of the Frogman.

More details on this and other Oktopus watches from Linde Werdelin, right here.